1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of telecommunications and, in particular to a method and apparatus for establishing a collect call originated through a packet based network.
2. Background Information
Numerous advances have recently been made in the area of telecommunications. In particular, the field of Internet telephony has emerged as a viable technology that continues to evolve at a startling rate. Such evolution is forcing traditional telecommunications practices to be supplemented and even replaced by new Internet-centric communications paradigms.
For example, various products on the market provide individuals with the ability to participate in voice communication with one another using a personal computer equipped with a communication protocol known as Voice over IP (VOIP), where the IP refers to the well-known Internet protocol. The Internet Protocol (IP) is a protocol utilized throughout the Internet to interleave and transmit data packets so as to best utilize the available bandwidth at any given time. VOIP is a term used to describe a set of services for managing the delivery of voice information using the Internet protocol. That is, the Internet provides the xe2x80x9cswitchingxe2x80x9d architecture for the system, while each computer acts as the xe2x80x9chandsetxe2x80x9d, or the audio interface for the caller/callee.
The recent proliferation of personal computers and Internet-accessible appliances has brought about the desire to integrate both function and features of the Internet with that of the PSTN (publicly switched telephone network). U.S. Pat. No. 6,026,087, titled xe2x80x9cMethod and Apparatus for Establishing a Voice Call to a PSTN Extension for a Networked Client Computerxe2x80x9d (having a common assignee with the present application) addresses the need for bridging functionality of Internet and packet based devices with that of conventional PSTN handsets. Accordingly, a user of a networked computer can place a voice, call to a PSTN extension (equipped with merely a conventional handset) rather than being limited to placing a voice call to only VOIP equipped hardware. Although this goes a long way towards integrating the VOIP functionality of the Internet with the PSTN, further integration remains desirable.
More specifically, despite the progress made to date in integrating the two communication networks, some desirable features currently available through traditional telephone communication networks remain conspicuously absent from Internet telephony. One such feature missing from Internet telephony is the ability for a calling party to initiate an Internet based call to a callee with the callee being assessed any communication charges associated with such a call.